Back in 2018, Hollywood brought back the shark movie in a big way with the summer release of The Meg. The big-budget blockbuster starring Jason Statham is set to become a franchise with its upcoming sequel, Meg 2: The Trench. Now that filming is underway for the megalodon flick, we know more about the movie’s cast.
Along with Jason Statham returning to the lead role of rescue diver Jonas Taylor, a number of other notable cast members have been added to the cast list, per The Hollywood Reporter. The Gifted actress Skyler Samuels, Rambo: Last Blood’s Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Resident Evil’s Sienna Guillory are all on board for the action film.
Sergio Peris-Mencheta, who faced off against Sylvester Stallone in Rambo: Last Blood, is set to play one of Meg 2’s villains, who is described as a “hard-edged” mercenary. Skyler Samuels, who has also notably (but briefly) worked with Ryan Murphy for Scream Queens and American Horror Story, will play an “adventure-loving member” of Statham’s submarine crew in The Trench. Lastly, Guillory, who played Jill Valentine in three Resident Evil movies, is going to play the head of an applied sciences division in the movie.
The three cast members join Cliff Curtis, Sophia Cai and Page Kennedy, who are each reprising their roles from The Meg. However, it doesn’t look like other cast members like Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose or Masi Oka are back in the film at this time. Last year, Mortal Kombat’s Jessica McNamee, who played Jonas’ ex-wife in The Meg shared that she would “love to be involved,” but at this time it doesn’t look like she’s part of the cast either.
The long-awaited sequel has production underway in the United Kingdom under the direction of Ben Wheatley, who previously helmed Sienna Guillory in 2015’s High-Rise. The new Meg director has shared the “heavy responsibility” he feels to make the sequel a great action movie that appeals to the shark fans. The Trench script was written by Jon and Erich Hoeber, who wrote the 2018 film along with the RED movies and 2020’s My Spy.
The latest cast members to join Meg 2: The Trench are not exactly massive movie stars we’ve seen in multiple other big-budget films, but the franchise is more known for delivering on big-scale action over a lineup of big stars. Jason Statham is coming off being part of the Fast and Furious franchise and filming the upcoming Expendables movie, so The Meg sequel will allow him to shine in an action flick of his own.
Meg 2: The Trench does not have an official release date yet, but we’d expect it to be ready to hit theaters next summer. While we anticipate the shark movie, check out what upcoming movies are headed our way this year.